Austria in Hindsight

It's a crazy life in Ohio, just over four months after "Austria" happened. I still look back on it all the time; with each passing day, I grow more and more thankful for the semester I spent there.

In hindsight, I'm so thankful that I didn't get the Celiac diagnosis until I returned. That way, I was able to to sample all that chocolate and all those waffles guilt-free. (not sickness free, but guilt-free!) That's my one exception to the ignorance is not bliss rule.

I can wear 0" heels here without death glares from every female in a 50 foot radius. And that makes me thankful to be an American.

You know, the people you sleep in train stations with? Well, you come to know each other pretty well. And I am thankful that I can rely on them to have my back--literally, when I am falling off a bench out of sleep-deprivation, and figuratively, when I just need a friend. You don't just forget people who you've been through a lot with.

But probably what I am most thankful for is the opportunity to have witnessed what it means to be a part of the Universal Church. Having been able to experience in a very tangible way the magnanimity of our faith, I have found since returning that I have so much more to draw from spiritually in the face of struggles, doubts, and tragedies.

I think I wrote before that Austria was like a spiritual slap in the face. And I stand by that claim still. It hurts a lot. You can sort of see it coming, you can sort of brace yourself, but no matter what, it stings. Afterwards, though, you are stronger for it. Physiologically speaking, the pain of the slap even stimulates an endorphin release.

...and hey, if we don't suffer, and die with Christ, we can't rise with Him. So if my spiritual physiology is correct, I'm pretty sure the slap all works out for the best. The very best.

And there is so much more that I just can't put in words, and I know that I have so much more to learn from Austria. I hope at the very least that I have allowed some of what I have experienced to change me for the better.

I'll just have to leave you with a song by one Kevin Heider. He went to Austria a few years before me and wrote this about everything he experienced there. I suppose it hits most home to those who can relate to what he's singing about, but maybe if you listen you'll get a hint of the glory that is four months in Austria.

Peace, and God bless.

Auf Wiedershehen!

Weirdest feeling ever? Walking up the stairs to my room after finishing my last final this morning. Now that I have no more classes or exams I have two days to wrap up good ol' life in Austria.

Is this the place where I insert some sappy, reflective essay on the experience of a semester in Europe? That I can do. Contrary to some people’s belief, my heart is not permanently made of stone.

For starters, I can't believe how much I managed to write down here...and yet how much there is still to tell or can't be told for lack of words.

To say this semester was emotionally charged would be the truth. It wasn’t in that teenish angsty way but a…this-is-life sort of way. I have yet to live the rest of my life, but I think being here in Austria has put a lot of it what will happen in the future into perspective. No matter what happens, I will always have this time to look back on and draw from. Given the broad spectrum of experiences, these past four months will no doubt be the semester that keeps on giving.

My philosophy class alone has shown me victory and defeat, confusion and superactual understanding. There you go, I just used the word superactual in a sentence…It might be best to leave now after all. The rest of Europe has shown me everything from the horrors of Auschwitz and the misery of oppression in Poland…to the glory of Rome, the beauty of Italy, and the profound mercy of God. There have been ups and downs from missing trains to witnessing miracles…and many, many more.

And the food! Europeans know how to eat, I tell ya. The chocolate is to die for (Teej, I stand by my claim that you’re out of you mind, but I have Italian AND Austrian Nutella for you), the pasta is outta this world. Everything! Everything! The kebabs! The coffee! The wine! The cheese! (Yes, I’m still lactose intolerant, but I will say that brie here is better than it is in the states). Life is so good here!

I will miss a lot of things, maybe not the Mensa food or zimmels, but definitely the view I wake up to every morning:

..and military time! I’ve really become fond of military time.

And the community. The community at the Kartause has no equivalent. You walk around this ex-monastery and you can just feel the how much every person here craves to experience life…from jumping in the freezing creek across the street at midnight (in the snow no less), to spelunking in the mountains…to dance parties in Rome… and Philosophy what-the-heck-was-Dr. Harold-talking-about sessions in the tea kitchens over coffee. Really that’s just a taste, because the list goes on and on. Life does too. I know that every person here will walk with a special place in his heart for home sweet Gaming. I know I will.

I’d say Austria was a success. It’s bittersweet to leave, but in a few days it’ll be time. The rest of today, tomorrow and Wednesday will be spent cleaning and packing…actually no…most of it will be spent in the mountains. Most of procrastination for final studying was packing, so there’s really not much left to do. Thursday we have our closing mass at 00:01 followed by a bonfire…before we head to the airport where we must wave this glorious semester goodbye…or should I say Auf Wiedersehen!

Thanks to everyone who made this semester so incredible…and everyone who stuck with me on the blogosphere. You rock. See you soon!

God bless,
Mary

Apparently they were right.

Thanksgiving, Kartause Style

I can hardly appreciate in one day the blessings that I have received this past year, let alone this past semester. Getting to celebrate Thanksgiving here in Gaming with students and faculty that I’ve gotten to know so well and become so fond of was yet another blessing.

Thanksgiving run down:

Our town celebrated its Thanksgiving months ago, so we at the Kartause were alone in our 4^th-Thursday-of-November-Turkey-roast…so we got to go to class on Thursday morning, since everyone else in Austria does that.

Mid-day was the Thanksgiving mass. We borrowed from Austrian tradition and had an enormous harvest crown brought in holding a bunch of fruits and veggies that Father Brad blessed. After mass everyone was invited to take a blessed fruit or veggie...and I must say blessed apples taste better than regular ones. For some reason nobody wanted the tomatoes, so we had a salsa party in Father Brad's office while he tried to figure out how to play Amazing Grace on his electric guitar. That didn't sound so good.

No Thanksgiving is complete without football. With no TV in sight, a bunch of the guys headed out to the intramural fields and started a pickup game in the afternoon.

Come 1730, it was time for the feast. From the belly of the kitchen came a turkey flaming with sparklers, at the sight of which the entire Mensa broke out in song with The Star Spangled Banner.

Post-dinner was the ball. We all dressed up in Dirndles and Lederhosen and learned Austrian folk dances until the Schuhplattler guys came in and showed us all up.

I can safely say it was no Rhode Island Thanksgiving. We only have 11 more days here (ah!!), and I can't think of a better way to have started wrapping up the semester.

'Tis the Season...in Austria

Today, the kids I babysit here informed me that Krampus was going to come and get me if I didn’t let them have more Milka.

P.S. from Rome...

...the pope says hello.

While I'm at it, I would like to take this opportunity to personally congratulate every member of the Fall 2010 Franciscan Austria program on their astounding round of applause upon being announced at the Wednesday audience. We were the only group to yield a two handed wave from our lovely Pope Benedict XVI when the groups were called. Awww, yeahh.

Assisi!

I'm a fan. Actually, a major fan. Along with Mondsee, Assisi is in my top two favorite towns. Most of being there isn't so much what you see as what you experience. It's a place where you can just be if that makes any sense. Consequently there's not really much to write. I will say, though, that it is beautiful, quiet, scenic...

...and hey, even the trash cans are quite pleasant.

Being with a bunch of Franciscans in the town of St. Francis has its privileges. Like, for example, getting to have mass in front of his tomb. That was pretty sweet. We also visited the San Damiano cross that spoke to him, and the Portiuncula that he rebuilt.


The Portiuncula is surrounded by a Basilica that houses basically the rest of Francis' life: the place where he died, the cave where he prayed, the rose bushes that he threw himself into when he was having lustful thoughts. Get this, to this day the bushes have no thorns.
Also there's a statue of him that is perpetually decked out in doves. Fo' real.





All in all it was a pretty saintly place.

Rome Is Where The Heart Is

Sometimes travelling with such good looking people in Italy is quite burdensome. Especially in the rain.

Indian street vendor: Bella bella bella! I have umbrella for you! Tree euro! Just tree!

Claire: I have one, thank you.

Indian street vendor: I have special price!

Claire: No.

Indian street vendor: You need an umbrella! Special price! Okay two euro!

Claire: No. I have one. Don’t you see it?

Indian street vendor: Your friend need umbrella!

Claire: She doesn’t. She has an umbrella, too.

Indian street vendor: She need two! I have special price! Just for you bella!

Indian guy proceeds to follow us down the street. We duck for safety into a metro station only to find four more umbrella men holding out their umbrellas to us, too.

…bella?

Anyway, after our little excursion to Loreto and the like, I couldn’t see how the trip couldn’t get any better. But it did.

Can I just say St. Peter’s Basilica is great? Serious understatement alert. It’s mind-blowing. It only took standing in St. Peter’s square to feel so incredibly small…like I was a negligible part of something incredible, which is, well, true, but at the same time I felt like I was home! Take that for a paradox.

Then I got a baby thrown at me and some guy pick-pocketed me.

Just kidding, that didn’t really happen. But had it happened, I would have been prepared. Thanks to warnings from previous Rome-goers about the baby-throwing diversion tactic utilized by Rome’s petty criminals, my friends and I prepared our defense strategy well before the trip. It may or may not have been inspired by Miss Congeniality.

But I digress once again. On to Rome!

Cognitive dissonance might be a good way of describing it…a city rich in ruins of the Roman Empire, the very foundations of Christendom, and…gelato shops, street vendors, and United Colors of Benetton. They all jumbled up together. Like the new Rome was built right around the old. Crazy.

Sunday morning before going into St. Peter’s, a few of us went up to the cupola to say morning prayer with the nuns. You could say it was both literally and spiritually ascetical. I mean, please, we were looking out at Rome while standing just over 150 meters above the bones of St. Peter. After prayer, I was privileged enough to be able to contemplate the plethora of gardens on Roman rooftops with my philosophy professor who, I am excited to admit, is ten times funnier on top of St. Peter’s than he is in class.

Afterward the cupola adventure we descended the 2-foot-wide, sideways, and claustrophobia-inducing stairwell to make it to mass inside….can I say that again? Mass inside St. Peter’s! In Latin! Contrary to whatever you may believe, Latin is not dead.

[Further proof: ATMs in Vatican City have a Latin option]

Being in St. Peter’s is, well, awesome. Just a word of advice? Take care not to get so totally overwhelmed when walking into St. Peter’s as to miss the Pieta, which is just inside to the right. I admit…I had to go back in because I completely missed it the first time I walked in. Anyway, no matter how long you’re there there’s always more to see and more to know. It was phenomenal to be surrounded by just endless holiness, history and symbolism…and humor.

Here we have the monument to Pope Gregory XIV. Pope for less than a year, Gregory XIV was rather unpopular for naming an inept family member as Secretary of State. The church so fondly remembers him with an empty niche set into the wall and a sarcophagus below bearing the inscription “Gregory XIIII.” The tombstone was supposedly recycled from a monument that had been rejected the year that commemorated his predecessor, Gregory XIII.

Well, I found it humorous anyway.

That…among many other quirky design stories made our tour not so much a monotonous explanation of every bishop dressed in white as it was a tangible journey through the history of the church. The early Christians were real people, too. Many thanks to the seminarians at the North American College who walked us through that history.

Sometime during the week we made it to Santa Scala, where we got to ascend the stairs that Jesus climbed to meet Pilate. Imagine a tiny little building just big enough to hold some stairs and a little chapel…mobbed by 170 Frannies trying to ascend the stairs on their knees. The security guard finally came out and had to tell everybody to hurry up because we were spending too long on each stair. The line out the door was getting to be incredibly long…and incredibly restless. Aside from that entertaining anecdote, being on those stairs, well, it makes you think about a lot of things.

Rome has a few other cool things too…you know, like the Coliseum, the Pantheon, the Spanish steps, more relics than I can conceive at any given moment…and a church here and there…and there and there....Not to mention Swiss guards, Scavi Tours, the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help (!) and much, much much much more.

Did I forget to mention the time we had mass in the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the walls? Probably, but then again I forgot to mention a lot of things.

Have you been to Rome? I think you should go. Take me with you! I will go back!!

If on Monday evening someone’s pedometer read 37 miles since arriving in Rome, I can’t even imagine how much we had walked by Thursday morning when we made our bittersweet departure for Assisi…

Which, God willing, I will document at some point.

Peace and blessings,

Mary

10-Day: The Road Trip Part

Once again I find myself back at the Kartause after an amazing experience in another country. This time it was Italy! This past Sunday I returned from a 10-day pilgrimage to Rome and Assisi. It definitely packed full of holy things and lots of pasta. People who come back from a semester here often say they came and “got their face blessed off.” Never has that felt so true.

A few days before meeting up in with Franciscan in Rome, I flew down with a few friends and one of our chaplains. We rented a car and road tripped around Italy to see some saintly sites (yeah, there are a few of those). Holding our breath (and sometimes closing our eyes….“Father Brad! What are you doing!?”) through Italian traffic…and countless hours of bonding time in our “5-seater” rental car (Italians must be very small people) was an experience I won’t forget so easily.

Our road trip itinerary included Loreto, San Giovanni-Rotondo, and Lanciano.

(The “unlimited mileage” option in the rental car package has its perks).

Needless to say, it was incredible. The entire trip was just one blessing after the next. You could say things started off with a bang when our first stop was the house of Mary, the Immaculate Mary…Our Lady herself! in Loreto. We sat and prayed where the Annunciation happened! Where God became man! The Word was made flesh! How else can I express myself!? I am blessed beyond belief!

If that weren’t enough, the next day we visited the tomb of St. Padre Pio, prayed in the cave where St. Michael appeared, and have a private mass right in front of the Eucharistic miracle in Lanciano.

There’s a line from Genesis about God “opening the floodgates of heaven” when it was time to flood the earth. It felt like the floodgates opened again, and the heavens just poured down grace.

Anyway, many thanks go out to everyone who made the first couple of the days so incredible…the Vietnamese Sisters of St. Joseph who let us crash at their convent in Rome, the sacristan, Phillipe, at the Church of Purgatory in Lanciano who showered us with prayer cards, rosaries, saint bracelets, 200-year-old church documents, and unceasing words of affirmation, the sacristan at the church in Lanciano who asked us if we wanted to have mass there, and Father Brad, our chaplain, who [not only successfully maneuvered through Italian traffic, but also] said the mass.

Come Saturday afternoon, when it was time to meet up with the school, the five of us decided that we could have just returned to Austria without seeing Rome sans regrets after those first few of days.

God is so good.

Peace and blessings,
Mary

Chocolate. Belgian Chocolate.

You know back in AP History when we had to write all those papers citing primary sources? Yeah, primary sources were the best.

Well, going to Belgium and eating Belgian chocolate was like going and eating a primary source.

And Belgian chocolate get's a second post because it was that good.

Belgi(YUM!)

How did I ever think I'd have time to keep up a blog? I wish I had more time to write about all the crazy things that happened this weekend. But I don't! Summary: We had four days off to travel so we did! We went to Belgium!

A few worth-mentionables:

• Got to hitchhike for the first time. It was so amazing. I wish it weren't so sketchy in the states. It's such an adrenaline rush. I'm sure that'll wear off, but playing damsels in distress trying to walk to and from the train station really does wonders. We got to meet prince charming in an Audi. Too bad he didn't speak English.
• Passport check on the night train was a treat, given the police officers were speaking dutch and we were all half-asleep. Someone muttered something along the lines of "What are they doing? Robbing us?" after which we got to hear them make fun of us in dutch. Another treat.
• We had the most incredible hospitality ever at the American College in Leuven. Fr. Mahar, you rock.
• The waffles don't disappoint. Neither does the Chocolate. Oh! The chocolate. We went from chocolatier to chocolatier and decided which to buy from based on the quality of their chocolate fountain. I'm pretty sure I'd do that again.
• Then there were churches! And palaces! And gardens! We all had a moment while sitting in the palace gardens when we realized we were...in Belgium, which was pretty crazy. I mean, we were sitting in a garden in Belgium. I'm just so blessed and so thankful to be here. My life is really pretty awesome.
• I'm pretty sure I witnessed a series miracles on the way home, given that we shouldn't have even made it home. Trains were running late every which way, and we all had philosophy homework that needed to be finished today looming over our heads. But all the trains were just the perfect amount of late so that we could get on them if we ran, and all the conductors were just the perfect amount of saintly...holding entire trains just for us and not minding our chilling out in the luggage compartment when all the seats were full. I'm telling you, we had some serious Guardian Angels looking out for us. It was really quite incredible.

And next week we have our 10-day Rome/Assisi pilgrimage, which I know will be incredible. I'm flying down a day early with some friends and one of our campus chaplains to see some saintly sights in southern Italy before we meet up with our group in Rome. I'm so looking forward to this.

You're in my prayers and again, I love you all.

Czech? ...check!

Cesky Krumlov is a cutie patootie little town on town on the Czech-Austrian border, just a 2.5 hour drive from Gaming. So yesterday we did a day trip! Because we all have Philosophy papers and are supposed to be doing them this weekend...so naturally, it's best to leave them to Sunday.

We arrived after only one near-death experience in the car. It's not enough that the roads are 2 inches wide...they're also two lanes.

Here's the town...if you haven't learned by now, I'm not good at taking meaningful pictures, so this is about the extent of the architectural documentation.

Other notable things from the day:

1. Eating a medieval Bavarian feast for lunch. By feast I mean feast. That carried me over from lunch yesterday to lunch today.

2. Eating rabbit. Ok, so it was included in the feast, but it was so good it deserved its own number. I feel the Czech experience is complete after that, even without having bought a Praha drinking team shirt.

3. Creeping on funny actors in moonboots on their lunch breaks. I wish I had a picture that better portrayed the awkwardness of it all. That there is a man in a skirt and leggings...and moonboots.

4. Did I mention we went to Czech in a big white Mary's Meals van? That might have explained the near death experience on the way back, too...as...

5. We foraged through a national park, aka the side of a mountain, in said van. (Did I mention 2-inch-wide roads?)

6. There was also a beautiful lake involved. If I remember the name, I might edit this post at some point. Probably not though.

Well, you know, that's all for now. Off to Philosophize.

How cool would it be to eat Gouda in Gouda?

Update on 10-day post

We're live with pictures. And I fixed all the grammar mistakes (thanks madre) because I know they were bugging you.

10-day, diary style

I resurrected my 5th grade diary days...those days of M.A.S.H. and cootie catchers and watching Full House with Jess after school...for the sake of 10-day. Guess what? I still can make a darn good cootie catcher. I guess I haven't changed much.

9 October 2010
Dear Diary,

We arrived yesterday in Fussen, which is in Bavaria. It’s known for its commercial lute industry.

Today we walked to Schwangau (about 5k from Fussen) and hiked to Neuschwanstein. It was magical, except for the part where I fell into a lake. I’d be willing to bet I was the only one who toured the castle today smelling like fish….and the only one who tried to dry my jeans under the bathroom hand drier. Life’s awkward sometimes.

10 October 2010

Dear Diary,

Mass at St. Mang's Abbey this morning. St. Magnus makes a nice addition to my dragon-slaying saints club with St. George. Sometimes I wish dragons still existed so I could slay one too. But they’re gone so it seems God has other plans for my life.

Hiked to Hohenschwangau, Ludwig II’s childhood home that inspired him to grow up and build lots of fairytale castles. That Ludwig is an interesting fellow. Clinically insane is the phrase I believe the doctors used. Found a cache by the castle....

...Hiked up Pöllatschlucht, which has this incredible waterfall and rocks (limestone and dolomite) that date back to the Middle Triassic period...there are also fossilized corals sponges and limealgaes. It appears all this time I’ve had this hidden an affinity for old minerals. It was great.

11October 2010

Dear Diary,

Spontaneous trip to Augsburg, the beginning of Bavaria’s “Romantic Road.” We got to stroll through an enormous open air market, the cathedral of St. Afra, and the oldest social housing community in the world, which was incredible. Augsburg has some really awesome history. It's definitely a modern city, too though. H &M anyone? Mango? United Colors of Benetton? Not like I've seen those in every single other big city I've been to. Had we more time and if I were solo, I would have gone and explored the backstreets and the little shops. Given the circumstances, though, 'twasn't possible. Good trip though. Good trip.

12 October 2010
Dear Diary,

Stopped in St. Gallen, Switzerland on our way to Italy.

Stiftsbibliothek St Gallen was incredible. We can't take pictures but if you click the link you can see it. There aren’t tours, but I slipped into a group of rowdy French women who seemed to know what was up. I didn’t really fit in because I was not wearing a fanny pack or leather pants, but I can warm up to people quickly. My favorite part with them was by the exhibit of botany books. “Ahh!! La fleur est si jolie! J'aime la fleur! Belle! Belle! J'aime de fumée à la bouche!” one of them exclaimed over and over at a picture of a flower that made you “smoke at the mouth.” She proceeded to rave about smoking at the mouth. Had to be there maybe? Anyway, I’m happy two semesters of French finally came in handy.

Oh, and yes! We wore slippers. Note to self: abbey library in slippers beats sock sliding at Costco any day.

Missed our connecting train to Italy. Got to sleep in a train station. Helped a lady from Peru find her way around Sestri Levente train station (talk about blind leading the blind). Happy five years of Spanish finally came in handy. Holey moley. That’s two in one day.

13 October 2010

Dear Diary,

Stepped off the train in Riomaggiore at 6:30 this morning to the smell of roses. Does life get any better? Actually, it does. We made our way up winding staircases to a walk overlooking the Mediterranean where we sat and watched the sunrise next to a lemon tree. Explored the town by day, made pasta and slept by night. Only here would graffiti consist of JADOR. Only here.

14 October 2010

Dear Diary, Italian Men,

Please keep your clothes on, especially while fishing in public. Gracie...

Dear Diary,

Hiked up a mountain from which you can see all five towns that make up Cinque Terre.

Made our way down and walked through their cemetery. Swam in the Mediterranean. Slept by the Mediterranean. Made dinner. Pasta, pasta, pasta.

15 October 2010

Dear Diary,

We hiked along Cinque Terre! All the way!

Rio to Manarola: walked along “Via dell'amore” It’s about as beautiful as it sounds, the perfect place for honeymooners to profess their love to each other with the sweet sound of Mediterranean waves crashing in the background. There are thousands of locks along the trail with things like “Giovanni and Maria forever” scribbled in permanent marker. I wonder….If you profess your undying love for someone on a lock stuck to a fishnet in Cinque Terre, would you go take it down if you ever broke up? Would you even remember the combination? Or where you put the key?

Manarola to Corniglia: Trail was closed due to landslide. Tried to forge our own via vineyards along the mountainsides. One hour later...dang that's a lot of pricker bushes...oh, and what's this? A cliff? So we just sat and ate some food in someone’s backyard. Then made our way down the cliff and took the train to Corniglia.

Corniglia to Monterosso: Ten trillion, or maybe just 4 hours worth of uneven stairs along the mountains + a bee sting to the face later, we made it. Ah, sweet, sweet Monterosso! Making it there, the view, the smell, the ocean, oh, everything was just fabulous.

It was definitely a long day, but it was a good day. Maybe moreso in hindsight than while we were climbing stairs....I could go without seeing stairs for a while.

16 October 2010

Dear Diary,

Apparently “a while” means less than 8 hours. We went to the church on the hill again this morning to watch the sunrise on our last day in Cinque Terre. If I thought stairs along the trail yesterday were bad, at least I could see them. Uneven stairs in the dark are kind of what I imagine walking through Rome's cobblestone in heels to be like. Man, were we trippin...

At the moment, I’m sitting on the beach in Levanto…

…watching a nun walk along the boardwalk with her veil flowing in the breeze.

17 October 2010

Dear Diary,

Five trains + 17 hours + countless characters we met along the way + reciting the prologue of Romeo and Juliet on the platform in fair Verona...

...+ the Italian woman in our sleeper car to Munich who really ought to have kept her shoes on for the sake of everyone’s respiratory health= we’re back in Gaming!

What a nice trip. And this time I really can say it was a nice trip. And I really did see Gaming in the fall. Hah! Finally, that pun is simultaneously literal...

The End of One Crazy Week and the Beginning of Another

Disclaimer: This is my fifth draft! My head is just spinning with so many thoughts at the moment that I can’t seem to make any into real sense. So let me try to just calm down and say what’s up.

Alrighty, first things first: midterms are over! Praise God! I think that for the most part they went very well, considering I’ve never really gotten to take midterms before. Reflecting on the course of events this past week, I think I would be happy with never taking them ever again. If there’s anything I learned from meeting Alice Von Hildebrand, though, it is that it would be an atrocity not to learn from our life experiences. So, note to self: have chocolate handy for the next potential midterm week.

Next order of business: 10-day itinerary…as I understand it.

Tonight: pack haha, good one

Friday morning: Wake up when it’s dark out. Bake some delicious chocolate nut muffins. Walk down to the train station.

Friday on the train: Read every single word of the Mental Floss that my beautiful madre just sent across the ocean. Oh, I really can’t wait. You try studying about procreation for a Christian Marriage midterm when there’s a Mental Floss in front of you containing an articles on Moptop Mania and Ken Jennings connecting Chai Tea and Tai Chi in six degrees.

Friday - Monday: Bavaria! Activities include hiking, frolicking, mountain luging, visiting many castles, going to mass in German, and exploring the beauty of southern Germany. And geocaching. Lots and lots of geocaching.

Tuesday: St Gallen, Switzerland. Visit Cathedral St. Gallen/ Abbey Library. This is exciting for many reasons:

• The cathedral is Baroque…praise God, I think I’ve seen enough Gothic.
• The library houses 140,000+ documents, some hand-written and some over a thousand years old.
• The library website promises “richly decorated Irish manuscripts.” How elegant.
• When you walk in the library, you have to wear fuzzy slippers so as to protect the floor.
• Picture-taking is prohibited in the library, but I will do everything in my power to snap a candid of the fuzzies.

Wednesday-Saturday: Cinque Terre. Activities include melting at the sight of Italy’s exquisite beauty, etc. Hopefully more geocaching. There may or may not be cliff diving, since James Kerin did it, and one of my life goals is to be just like James.

Sunday: Arrive back in Gaming. Sleep.

And that is all for now. God bless and I'll see you in a week or so. A Hail Mary for me would be so perfect if you have 30 seconds to spare. You know, for my safety or something. Cliff diving can be hazardous.

Happy Feast of St. Francis! etc

I've never seen the friars here so happy as they are today on the feast of their patron. It's really just darling how they just walk around smiling all the time. Like Buddy the Elf in a TOR habit.

In other news, midterms are going well. Starting Friday we have our first of two 10-day breaks. Plans aren't finalized yet, but it looks like I'll be going with a few other girls to Bavaria for a few days, followed by a stop in Switzerland for cathedrals and a chocolate factory, then on down to northern Italy.

Not much other news, besides my recent induction to the Austrian chapter of Sherpas. Thank you, thank you, yes, it's very exciting. Here are some snapshots from last weekend's mountain run..."Keep running, there ain't gonna be no Yelnats the fifth!"

...oh, nevermind.

Off to study!

God bless,
Mary

The finest of Europe's castles

Oberammergau

Franciscan's Austria Program: "the semester of a lifetime" a spiritual slap in the face.

This past weekend I had the opportunity to go to Oberammergau, Germany, to see the Passion play that they are so famous for. The play dates back to the the mid 1633 when the plague was making its way around the region, causing massive amounts of death as plagues tend to do. The people of Oberammergau vowed to portray the Passion of our Lord every ten years...and voila, from that moment, not one person in the town fell victim to the Black Death. True to their vow, the people of Oberammergau have been performing a play commemorating the Passion every 10 years.

Now I know people who have been planning on coming here to see the play for decades and here I just sort of went down to the office last week and said, "could I get a ticket for Oberammergau this weekend?" And they said sure and handed me one. Life is really not fair that way.

The town of Oberammergau is pretty amazing to begin with. In addition to the play, they're known for their woodworking, and for good reason; they just know how to make wood look good. There is also merit to their being known for the play. Besides it being cold and...German, it was pretty epic.

My favorite part was definitely the living images from the Old Testament that were introduced before each scene of the play, foreshadowing different parts of the Passion. Before the interrogation by Annas and the High Council, the images portrayed Daniel in the lions' den and the mocking of Job. Before the Last Supper, we saw the Paschal meal before the Israelites' exodus into Egypt. And so on. They were all rather appropriate, biblically speaking. The unity between the Old and New Testaments was incredibly tangible.

I'm so happy that I decided to go. The experience was unforgettable.

We arrived back here at 4am, and after a few hours of sleep I'm just trying to figure out the meaning of the word "midterm." As I a bio major, the concept is quite new to me. We just have tests all the time...none of this midterm nonsense. I should probably get this settled before next week.

...Next week! Have we really been here that long already?

Baking Adventure, Part 2

If I didn't already learn from my first adventure in the tea kitchen that nothing I will try to bake will come out looking (or tasting) like I expected, I re-learned it this morning.

Gosh I love it here.

Banana nut...donuts, anyone? ...would you like that?